Looking for help. I’m a 48 year old male. Been on tirz for a few months and I’m down 30 lbs. Feeling a lot better, but now I want to get back into the gym.
I used to do a lot of cardio, but for the past 3 years I’ve honestly been really lazy. As an adult I have never really done much resistance training. I have a chance to kind of start from scratch now and I want to build my exercise foundation around weight training instead of cardio.
How do I start? Can someone give me the basic lifts, rep counts, set counts, and how to combine it all? I feel really lost right now. Thanks for any input.
Firstly, congrats, and secondly, the benefits of resistance training on just about every area of health are vast, so contracts in that goal as well.
This is about as easy and effective as it gets for a beginner.
Aim for three full body workouts a day, and instead of thinking of muscle groups, think of movements - pushing, pulling, and something that bends the knees and hips (eg legs).
You can push and pull either vertically (overhead presses, Pullups/pulldowns) or horizontally (bench press, rows).
Each workout you can do a push, a pull, and a leg exercise, and then anything else thst floats your boat, but most big exercises hit everything else.
Add weight to a bar and if you can't get 8 good reps, it's too heavy, and if you can do more than 15 it's too light. Aim for three sets of each exercise.
A week might look like this:
Monday (Workout A)
1. Horizontal push - bench press (machine press, DB press)
2. Horizontal pull - a row of some kind (cable, machine, DB, BB)
3. Leg - Squating movement (there are many varieties)
Wednesday (Workout B)
1. Vertical press - Overhead press of some type
2. Vertical pull - Pull down, pull up, etc
3. Leg - deadlift, lunges, etc
Friday repeat workout A.
Then the following week, Monday you start with workout B, workout A, and then workout B.
Like someone said, you could hire a trainer for a couple sessions to make sure you learn the proper technique for different exercises.
Keep track of your workouts and try to to a little more than you did the previous time, which might just be one rep, but that's progress.
You can throw I whatever else you want - core, arms, etc - but stick with a big pushing movement, pulling movment, and leg movement three times a week, with good form, close to failure, eat adequate protein, and you should be good to go.
I hope this helps.
